Just to let you all know - I was booked on the Spirit for the last week on June 2008 sailing to St Thomas, Tortola and Dominican Republic. NCL emailed me that there is a problem with one of their engines and that the itinerary changed . No trip to St Thomas and instead, a shorter day in Puerto Rico. My family and I ( group of 6) cancelled. Just a heads up!

BigE11378

March 5th, 2008 02:19 PM

thanks, yeah we are on the May 17th cruise, we are going to contine with it even though it is a change. we have never been to PR so we figured try it out, plus they never informed us yet

sistagoldenhair

March 6th, 2008 11:36 AM

I'm booked on the Spirit for Jan of 09 - I heard the ship is going into dry-dock to be fixed - including the engine problem. Does anyone know if this is true, and if so, when is it scheduled to be refurbished?

beenie weenie

March 6th, 2008 12:30 PM

Sista my understanding is it should be fixed in Nov. 2008 during the scheduled refurb.

sistagoldenhair

March 6th, 2008 01:22 PM

Thanks beenie - I'm sure its gonna be fab!!!!

BigE11378

March 7th, 2008 06:48 PM

for me the ship is the vacation the ports are extras so the slower cruise is ok

vacaqn

April 9th, 2008 11:31 PM

NCL should dry dock this ship for good! This is the worst ship in their fleet. I can't understand why NCL doesn't take the ship out of commission and put a nicer larger ship on the 12 day out of NYC. The 12 day itinerary is awesome, but 12 days on that ship was the pits!

nmnita

April 9th, 2008 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vacaqn

NCL should dry dock this ship for good! This is the worst ship in their fleet. I can't understand why NCL doesn't take the ship out of commission and put a nicer larger ship on the 12 day out of NYC. The 12 day itinerary is awesome, but 12 days on that ship was the pits!

Like every other aspect of cruising a view on a particular ship can be very subjective. I have read both good and bad about the Spirit, but most of the reviews on another website are very positive when it comes to the Spirit. Maybe if you could give some details about what makes you feel this way about the Spirit it would be easier for some of us to understand. My bosses absolutely loved her and as Travel Agents they certainly have cruise many lines. I may add, NCL isn't their favorite line.

Nita :wink:

BigE11378

April 10th, 2008 12:15 AM

we loved the spirit, the only issues we found were some hallways seemed to be dead ends so you could get lost heading to the main restaraunt, but it only happens once,maybe twice if you hit the bar before dinner

vacaqn

April 10th, 2008 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nmnita

Quote:

Originally Posted by vacaqn

NCL should dry dock this ship for good! This is the worst ship in their fleet. I can't understand why NCL doesn't take the ship out of commission and put a nicer larger ship on the 12 day out of NYC. The 12 day itinerary is awesome, but 12 days on that ship was the pits!

Like every other aspect of cruising a view on a particular ship can be very subjective. I have read both good and bad about the Spirit, but most of the reviews on another website are very positive when it comes to the Spirit. Maybe if you could give some details about what makes you feel this way about the Spirit it would be easier for some of us to understand. My bosses absolutely loved her and as Travel Agents they certainly have cruise many lines. I may add, NCL isn't their favorite line.

Nita :wink:

Hi Nita:
I agree, everything is subjective. Let me start by saying that NCL is my favorite line. I love everything about it and can't stop raving about all the great cruises we've taken on NCL (especially the most recent on the Gem).

My complaints about the Spirit were felt by many of the passengers that we spoke with during the course of the 12 days. The ship was dirty. There were never any towels at the pool area and we were all asking for hours for towels. We were all told in 10 minutes. Well, the 10 minutes turned into 4 days with no towels at the pool. That's unexceptable. The food was really substandard in the dining room. Yes, I'm the first to say opinions about food are VERY subjective, but when the temperature of the food is cold when it's supposed to be hot or when the salads are warm when they're supposed to be cold, that's unexceptable, not to mention dangerous. In 12 days, we never saw our cabin stewart until the night before disembarkation.

I also think that the ship is too small for the longer itineraries. This ship was purchased from an Asian company & refurbished to look like the rest of the NCL fleet. Everything is a smaller scale. I will say the artwork was interesting and I did enjoy it.

I realize that everyone has different requirements and mine are pretty basic. I love to vacation very casual and don't require much, but cleanliness and food prepared to the right temperature should be something monitored closely.

NCL does a great job of monitoring the use of hand sanitizers. I think this is what I like so much about this line.

I continue to cruise on NCL and love it, just not the Spirit.

nmnita

April 11th, 2008 11:10 AM

Vegan,

I am sorry you had such a bad experience on the Spirit. I certainly haven't heard the ship was dirty and most love the deor, but obviously your experience was a little different. I can see why you feel the way you do.

Yes, the Spirit was originally part of the Star fleet and designed for the Asian cruiser. I have heard everything is a bit scaled down in size. As for the towel issue, I think most of the NCL ships now have the pool towels in the cabins. Everyone is to use them and return them for fresh ones. It sounds like something went wrong this time.

As for length of cruise and itinerary using a smaller ship: that I don't quite understand. We took the Amsterdam, HAL, on a 10 day cruise through the canal a few years ago. Passenger capacity, under 1500. I had a couple of clients that took the same ship last fall on a 64 day cruise starting in Seattle. I am not sure the size of the ship has much to do with the itinerary.

I am glad to hear you have not given up on NCL> I think we will be cruising on the Spirit in November.

Nita

BigE11378

April 11th, 2008 01:16 PM

there was a guy ( I will not call him a gentleman) on the Gem over New Years who argued with the crewmember leading into the buffet because he did not want to sanitize his hands. I almost got inot it with him when he decided to wash his hands. I felt it is not his right to make me sick because he does not want to wash his hands. NCL does a great job with the hand sanitizers. We are going on the Spirit again in May so we must like it.

Zach17

April 11th, 2008 11:22 PM

i saw her in new orleans a month ago. she looked ok from the outside. we sailed on the Fantasy. but this "engine problem" concerns me because we have family due to go on the Fantasy and if she is stuk in new orleans due to the engine problems than the fantasy will most likely have to diver to galveston :-?

jetskier

April 20th, 2008 10:01 PM

I was on the Spirit for 15 nights for the Nov 3rd, 2007 repo to New Orleans and loved the ship. We had no problems getting towels by the pool. There were in large bins by the blackjack table. No problems with the food. We really liked the fare in the Blue Lagoon.

The hotel and cruise directors were a lively bunch and it showed in the social hosts as they were having fun. We will be back on the ship again right after its drydock and on the first sailing out of NOLA for the winter 2008 season.
Dave

beenie weenie

April 21st, 2008 09:40 AM

We were just on the spirit a few weeks ago. We did not feel the ship was dirty. We had a great cruise. It was our second time on the Spirit. We have been on quite a few different ships, large and small, old and new and felt this this was one of our most enjoyable cruises. I tried to determine why we enjoyed this cruise so much, and it had nothing to do with the physical condition of the ship. More than anything it had to do with the people who took very good care of us. They spoiled us rotten in most cases. We've never been treated as well.
To be fair, I think that when you have the opportunity to spend two weeks long on one ship you develop a different perspective and I do think that the crew does try harder on the longer cruises like Jetskier and I had the opportunity to experience on the Repo cruises.
Now the Spirit has been around awhile, it was an asian ship and things are on a much smaller scale. But I feel that is part of its charm. However if you are going to attempt 4 people in one cabin, you need to try hard to get one of the few oversized cabins, otherwise it will be a very tight fit. The most common complaint we heard from our fellow cruisers was that the beds were uncomfortable. This should be remedied with Freestyle 2.0 which I assume will be implemented before or during the drydock.
The other thing that needs some attention in drydock are the windows. Some of the dual pane window seals have blown and moisture between the glass has given them a fogged or dirty look.
The food was fine. We dined several times in the speciality restaurants, but never had any problems finding something good to eat in any of the restaurants. I don't typically enjoy buffets, so I find it best to try and avoid them on land or sea unless, that is the only option. Blue Lagoon on the Spirit had much better food and service than we experienced on the Sun or Pearl and it was kept much cleaner than the one on the Pearl. On the Pearl, we went to Blue Lagoon on a Port Day for lunch and all you could see were dirty tables and trays on stands lined full of dirty breakfast dishes at 11:45 a.m and the staff was somewhat hostile and surly, and very slow. Blue Lagoon on the Spirit was always manned by friendly efficient wait staff and the wings and Mac and cheese were really good.
Regarding the towels. We had a notice in our room stating they would only exchange towels on the pool deck. So in essence they must have made a change. There were beach towels in our cabin, and if we wanted a fresh one right away all we had to do was take them up to the pool and exchange them. I never went without.

Vacaqn, just so you know, I don't think you're crazy, or hallucinating, I think that we had two totally different experiences. I do think crews and management change constantly on these ships. Sometimes there are high points in certain areas, while others decline. Like the cleanliness, food and towel issues when you cruised the Spirit as opposed to the experiences of Jetskier or me.

LifeLongCruiser

July 19th, 2008 12:38 AM

NCL Spirit July 20, 2008

I booked my in law's 50th anniversary party in Nov. 2007 on this cruise. We are traveling with 28 family members. We chose the Spirit because it was going to stop on their private island. They changed the itinerary back in February because of "jet propulsion issues" and they took out the private island and substituted Grand Bahama. No one was happy but we were all still excited. Now, just 2 days before the trip we got notification that they are taking Grand Bahama off the itinerary! NCL said we had one day to cancel. Now, instead of 3 ports we are only going to 2 ports. Everyone is already disgruntled. Is NCL KIDDING? Apparently their master plan is to keep booked passengers in the dark until it's too late to change our plans. I've been cruising for 40 years. I've been on at least 10 different cruise lines (some that don't exist anymore) I have NEVER been treated as poorly as I have by NCL. People have been writing about this since as far back as February. One person even noted that the ship will be in dry dock in November. Any one thinking about going on NCL... BEWARE THE ITINERARY CHANGE!

beenie weenie

July 19th, 2008 11:58 AM

Yes this is typical. They have pulled these stunts a lot this past year. We were on the Spirit repo cruise from NOLA to NYC and they waited until after final payment to announce itinerary changes. The itineraries after ours really got hosed up more than ours and I really felt bad for the people affected. NCL knew they had issues with these engines long before then and now they are still screwing this stuff up.

I had also booked a transatlantic on the Jade for November of this year which they cancelled and stuck me with international airfare for four people and a host of other non-refundable expenses. Fortunately RCCL had a Transatlantic leaving from Barcelona a day earlier and we opted to book that instead of incurring more expense changing our plans to the alternate cruises offerred by NCL and rewarding them further for screwing up our travel plans. It's more than just these issues that really frustrated me. We had so many issues with just booking the Jade in the first place, because of more of NCL's problems. It was ridiculous. It's like they really don't know how to make a plan and stick with it. There are all of these last minute changes and adjustments.

I have cruise enough to know that unexpected issues arise, but they have no regard for the expense and inconvenience they cause their so-called "valued customers" to incur everytime they pull one of these stunts.

The Spirit has had known engine issues since Decenber if memory serves me correctly, as soon as they knew they were not fixing it until the next drydock, which I think was to be this coming November, they should have then notified passengers as soon as possible of itinerary changes and stuck to it. So people could have made decisions as soon as possible, rather than trying to "trap" them, by waiting until they have invested so much money in it, they can't change.

On a brighter note, I have to say the crew of the Spirit are wonderful people. We were fortunate to cruise with twice, the last time was for two wonderful weeks this spring and we have never been treated better. I throughly enjoyed the cruise.

It is kind of a love/hate relationship with NCL. I like their ships, I love most of their crew, I like the variety of dining venues, I like the ports, I hate the corporate and land-based side of the company though.

Currently I have 3 cruises booked and none are on NCL. I think I need a break from them for a while.

shoreguy

July 19th, 2008 02:25 PM

Re: NCL Spirit July 20, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeLongCruiser

I booked my in law's 50th anniversary party in Nov. 2007 on this cruise. We are traveling with 28 family members. We chose the Spirit because it was going to stop on their private island. They changed the itinerary back in February because of "jet propulsion issues" and they took out the private island and substituted Grand Bahama. No one was happy but we were all still excited. Now, just 2 days before the trip we got notification that they are taking Grand Bahama off the itinerary! NCL said we had one day to cancel. Now, instead of 3 ports we are only going to 2 ports. Everyone is already disgruntled. Is NCL KIDDING? Apparently their master plan is to keep booked passengers in the dark until it's too late to change our plans. I've been cruising for 40 years. I've been on at least 10 different cruise lines (some that don't exist anymore) I have NEVER been treated as poorly as I have by NCL. People have been writing about this since as far back as February. One person even noted that the ship will be in dry dock in November. Any one thinking about going on NCL... BEWARE THE ITINERARY CHANGE!

Very odd - Looking at the website the 20th is the only cruise that skips Grand Bahama :?: I wonder what the issue is next week.

nmnita

July 19th, 2008 06:56 PM

Re: NCL Spirit July 20, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by shoreguy

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeLongCruiser

I booked my in law's 50th anniversary party in Nov. 2007 on this cruise. We are traveling with 28 family members. We chose the Spirit because it was going to stop on their private island. They changed the itinerary back in February because of "jet propulsion issues" and they took out the private island and substituted Grand Bahama. No one was happy but we were all still excited. Now, just 2 days before the trip we got notification that they are taking Grand Bahama off the itinerary! NCL said we had one day to cancel. Now, instead of 3 ports we are only going to 2 ports. Everyone is already disgruntled. Is NCL KIDDING? Apparently their master plan is to keep booked passengers in the dark until it's too late to change our plans. I've been cruising for 40 years. I've been on at least 10 different cruise lines (some that don't exist anymore) I have NEVER been treated as poorly as I have by NCL. People have been writing about this since as far back as February. One person even noted that the ship will be in dry dock in November. Any one thinking about going on NCL... BEWARE THE ITINERARY CHANGE!

Very odd - Looking at the website the 20th is the only cruise that skips Grand Bahama :?: I wonder what the issue is next week.

Hi, I am sure there is a good explanation but as you know, when people get upset and sometimes justifiable so, they only want us to know how bad things are, not the reasons behind the problem. I haven't read anything about this on the other forums.... :?: :!:

shoreguy

July 20th, 2008 04:09 PM

The explaination - The Spirit will overnight in Nassau to repair a damaged propeller. The next cruises are back to the current itinerary. Short straw for this one cruise.

beenie weenie

July 20th, 2008 04:30 PM

Well that might work out to your benefit if you like Atlantis. You could book a room at Comfort Suites and that will give you full access to Atlantis for up to four people. We've done that before in the past, but I always felt as though the ship wasn't there long enough to get the most out of the experience. If gets in Nassau in the morning and stays there overnight, it would be nice.

LifeLongCruiser

July 27th, 2008 05:12 PM

Well, we just got back from our cruise. I am SO disappointed. The quad rooms are really triples with a pullout couch...which I guess is ok except that it pulls out right into the pathway to the outside door and bathroom. As far as I am concerned, that is a safety violation/issue. No, there are not two bunks in the room, just one overhead. I don't think I could list all of the disappointments here. Knowing the ship has problems severe enough to alter itineraries should be enough to put the ship into early drydock, as far as I am concerned. AND, I think NCL should sell the triple as a triple and not try to squeeze a quad out of it. Again, it's a safety issue. I will NEVER travel with NCL again. I have never felt as UNSAFE on a cruise as I did on this one. A few examples, they NEVER brought an infant life jacket to my room for my 18 month old, no clear path to the door in case of emergency, hot food was cold... cold food warm. Towels left on floor to be washed, rehung without washing. Oh, I could go on...but I won't.

nmnita

July 27th, 2008 09:48 PM

Thank you, what an upbeat review: please safe us the details. I am glad you are going to go on and on and I am glad most of the Spirit reviews do not agree with yours. To each his own. ..It is always encouraging to see someone post, for the first time, a review that is anything but positive.

I would like to know what your comments have to do with the itinerary change the OP was referring to.

I have to wonder how many times and what lines you have cruised in the past?

Nita :wink:

beenie weenie

July 27th, 2008 10:30 PM

The poster stated clearly:

Quote:

Knowing the ship has problems severe enough to alter itineraries should be enough to put the ship into early drydock, as far as I am concerned

No one can deny the Spirit has some extremely small staterooms and I definitly agree that the quad cabins on the Spirit are extremely crowded (no balcony quads are available on the Spirit) and I pity anyone who has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, as the pull out sofa blocks the exit from the sleeping area. So you have to stradle and climb over whoever was unfortunate enough to have to sleep there. You are very limited on your options if you need a quad on the Spirit.

I also agree that the ship should have been pulled out of service and put in drydock. Yes there would have been one or two cancelled cruises, instead of altering peoples itinerary for almost a year's time, until they can do it during the drydock already scheduled for November. The way they went about notifying their customer's especially during the first 4-5 months really stunk too.

There is no excuse for the room steward to not provide a child's size life preserver. From her comments it sounds as though she had a lousy room steward as well.

I do find many positives about the Spirit and have cruised twice in a quad, but if someone gets on expecting to have an inside cabin the same size and approximate layout as other cruise ships of other lines like Carnival, RCCL etc... is understandable why they would be a little shocked and disappointed at the size of the quads on the Spirit. We were fortunate to have gotten one of the rare oversized rooms on the Spirit the last time. Unfortunately it was so loud from the trolleys overhead going through the buffet into the wee hours of the morning (it sounded like a roller coaster overhead) luckily I was able to make do with earplugs, but they did offer to move us into another room to try to help us out, but when we looked at the other room it was so small, you had to step out in the hallway to change your mind. We were on the ship for two weeks and had a blast in spite of it all, but I can see how the poster's experiences could color their perceptions.